Obsolete: The 12 Aspects of Mindfulness (V1)

To be mindful is to look attentively, to observe carefully, and to contemplate thoughtfully. The activity of mindfulness may be described as follows:

Look attentively at what is right there in front of you, physically or mentally.

If there are many things in front of you, then start with the first thing that your attention goes to. Then look at the next thing, to which the attention goes naturally, and so on. If there are many issues you are concerned with, then start with the issue uppermost in your mind, then the next issue in the queue, and so on. Do not speculate. Do not go digging into the mind. Keep looking patiently at what comes up naturally to be scrutinized. Then observe it carefully.

Observe things as they really are, not as they seem to be.

As you look, do not expect anything, and do not assume anything. It is easy to assume what one normally expects to be there. For example, if you are looking at the profile of a person, you see only one ear, but you may believe that the person has two ears. Be mindful about what you actually see without taking anything for granted. Let your observation be completely non-judgmental.

If something is missing do not imagine something else in its place.

If something is missing then recognize that it is missing. Do not imagine something in its place. If someone asks you a question and no answer comes up in your mind, then do not feel obliged to make up an answer. You will then end up defending an answer that was imagined and not there naturally. If something is missing then continue to observe around that area. Maybe something interesting will come up, maybe not.

If something does not make sense then do not explain it away.

If something does not make sense, then recognize that it does not make sense. Do not try to explain it away. If you encounter a failure do not just blame it on yourself or on the circumstances. Contemplate upon it until all inconsistencies (things that don’t make sense) are resolved. When faced with an inconsistency, be alert to what you might be taking for granted. At times it may take some thinking outside the box to realize what is going on.

Use physical senses as well as mental sense to observe.

We associate the idea of sense organs with eye, ear, nose, tongue, and body. However, the mind is also a sense organ, which senses the ideas, thoughts, feelings, emotions, and sensations out there. When being mindful, use all your senses to observe, including your mind.

Let the mind un-stack itself.

Let the mind present what to look at. There should be no digging into the memory. There should be no effort to recall. Simply look at what is right there in front of the mind’s eye. Let the mind un-stack itself naturally through patient contemplation. When that is allowed, the mind will never present anything overwhelming.

Experience fully what is there.

An important aspect of mindfulness is to fully experience what is there, such as, feelings, emotions, efforts, etc. But before you do that, make sure that your environment is safe and free of disturbance. The mind should be free of stimulants. If the mind is racing, then simply experience that racing phenomenon without contributing to it. There should be no resistance when experiencing. Fully experience whatever the mind presents naturally.

Do not suppress anything.

It is the suppression of perceptions, memories, knowledge, visualizations, thinking, etc., that causes all difficulties in life. First make sure that your environment is safe and free of disturbances. Any medical condition should be addressed appropriately first. You then start observing whatever is there without suppressing it. If something shameful appears then you observe and experience the shame. If something threatening appears then you observe and experience the threat. Do not pre-judge and avoid something because you consider it to be painful. By not suppressing you establish complete integrity of perception.

Associate data freely.

Let the data be presented by the mind without being interfered with. Let the mind associate that data freely on its own. Mindfulness is observing the very activity of thinking itself.

Do not get hung up on name and form.

Simply be aware that name and form may act as built-in judgment of what is there. Your task is to see things as they are. There should be no effort to judge by deliberately supplying name and form to what is there.

Hi Anil. Welcome to my blog.. I would love to get your feedback on what I write here. I think that people who are ‘right’ or ‘left’ brain dominant can be equally mindful just as they can be equally responsible.

I think that mindfulness is the antidote to human ‘entropy’, which automatically drags one down into the most lethargically comfortable state regardless of ‘right’ or ‘left’ brain dominance.

Welcome to my blog. I am told that my writing is too Engineerish for most people to understand. So, I need to find time and inclination to translate from Engineerish to English.

I am glad that you could follow this post, and it has helped you. This is the heart of how I understand Buddha. All my philosophy (KHTK – Knowing How To Know) is based on these 12 points of mindfulness.

I made a living translating engineers. I always found engineers to be extremely good writers and thinkers; but could often help with making abstraction more concrete and organizing complex ideas into bite-sized pieces. This post is very bite-sized… great job!

However, though cult membership may begin with a curiosity; a looking for depth of understanding; finally, cult membership takes that away. It might be the main thing that cult membership really takes.

Cult membership and that avid craving for agreement are the antithesis of an open spirit — sincerely looking to resolve the inconsistencies of this life.

Geir is fixated on the idea that I am trying to promote KHTK through his blog, and that is creating a games condition for him.

Geir feels sort of being in competition with my blog. He hates the idea that somebody may promote his/her blog through his blog. Geir is very territorial in this respect.

That indicates to me of “individualism” and “ego.” It goes against the idea that we can contribute to knowledge together. Hubbard was very territirial too, Therefore, Hubbard declared himself to be the source of Scientology.

I find your mindfulness steps an endearing guide for those seeking mindlessness, They are as good for the spirit and mind as breathing is for the body. If one could develop a pattern or habit which the mind could follow to keep those steps going, it would be a boon for most. Meanwhile, I’ve found that certain forms of steady meditation can dissolve enough of the mental distraction and “case” in big ways to get to a point where one can appreciate your steps and literally change their entire vibration.
I personally noticed the equivalent “noise reduction” of 1000 of auditing in less than 40 hours of meditation without any of the bs that would go with a cult.
The forum people need your input, thank you for your kindness and caring enough to put those gentle words into reach for them to appreciate and heal.

Dear Phil, Thank you for your kind words. This is the old tech of Buddha communicated in modern vocabulary. I am now putting some exercises together so people can practice these step and make mindfulness their second nature.

Here is an excellent question put to me by an old classmate from IITK. I am sharing it here.
Vinay,

Responding with your original post so the 12 steps would be included for reference.

I happened to read your post around the time that I saw a video by Stanford professor Clifford Nass explaining why texts and social media don’t measure up to face to face interaction http://paw.princeton.edu/issues/2013/04/03/pages/3052/index.xml . He points out that face to face interaction involves feedback about emotions, positive and negative, from the other person.

Now let us revisit your 12 steps, keeping in mind emotions and relationships with others. Except for Step 7, “Experience fully what is there,” the other steps deal with being attentive, observing, using the mind, thinking, … which are all internal processes, having to do with the self.

We are social beings — think of what the GJR* meant to those who attended in the company of batch mates and spouses. How would you go beyond Mindfulness, which seems to me to deal with the self, and bring expand the concepts to include relationships with others?

Ravi

*GJR = Golden Jubilee Reunion of the 1963 batch of IITK in March 2013.

Here are my quick responses to Ravi:
.
“Thanks for picking up the subject of mindfulness for discussion. Being from academia you bring a unique perspective from which to examine mindfulness.

“Buddha considered mindfulness to be of great importance in the path to enlightenment. See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mindfulness. Comparing it to the factors that contribute to social maturity would certainly be interesting.

“It is late now. I shall get back to you soon.”

.

“I have found that mindfulness removes introversion and helps extrovert a person. I believe that mindfulness, when taught at an educational institution, such as, IITK, can help drastically reduce the instances of suicide.

“Stanford professor Clifford Nass seem to suggest face to face interaction as a solution to some problem that I am not very clear about. The standards of social maturity are very different in the West as compared to those in the East. A person like a scientist, can be a detached observer, and still be socially very responsible. Such detached observation is taught through mindfulness. That has been the hallmark of Eastern philosophy.

“On the other hand, the hallmark of Western Philosophy has been delving deep into life and experiencing the emotions, such as those, which come from scaling the mountains, or sailing across the seas. It is the spirit of adventure and creative imagination, which is valued in the West the most. However, I believe that mindfulness prepares one for that too.

“I think that Professor Nass is looking at the effect of social media on 8 -12 year old pre-teens. It is an important study but it concentrates on a very narrow band.

“These are some quick thoughts. Self is a pretty large subject and I may not have answered your question fully.”

Yes, there seem to be another 63-Batch book in making here, and I can’t think of a better editor than Ravi.

Vinay

[Note: We published the IITK history and the accomplishments from our ’63-batch in a book edited by Ravi at our recent GJR (Golden Jubilee Reunion) in March 2013. That book has been a great accomplishment.]